VEGETABLES; — DESCRIPTION AND CULTURE. 



257 



QKRA.— (Hibiscus esculentus.) 



This is au annual Malvaceous plant, a native of the 

 West Indies, and much esteemed and cultivated wherever 

 its merits are known. There are several varieties — the 

 round, smooth green, and the long fluted or ribbed white, 

 which grow tall ; also the dwarf. There is no great differ- 

 ence in quality, but the dwarf sort is best for gardens. 



Okra likes a good, dry soil. Any soil will produce it 

 that is good enough for the cotton plant, which belongs to 

 the same natural family. The pods are not as pleasant or 

 early on over-rich soil. It is not planted until the frosts 

 are over, as it is tender, though it often comes up from self- 

 sown seed. The time of planting cotton or snap beans is 

 a very good guide, though some may be put in as an exper- 

 iment two weeks earlier. Make the drills three feet apart, 

 sow the seed rather thinly, and thin out to two feet apart 

 in the drill. Those thinned out may be transplanted and 

 will make productive plants. No seed should be allowed 

 to ripen on those stalks from which the pods are gathered 

 for eating. As fast as the pods become hard or unfit for 

 use, cut them off, for if left on, the stalk will cease to be 

 productive. If not allowed to ripen seed, the plants will 

 continue bearing through the season. The dwarf okra 

 may stand about fifteen inches apart in the drill, and it is 

 well when any plant begins to fail in productiveness to 

 cut it down to a foot from the ground and it will soon 

 throw up bearing shoots. 



To Save Seed. — Leave some of the earliest plants to ri- 

 pen seed, if you would have this vegetable in good season. 

 Shell out the seed, and stow away in paper bags. 



Use. — The pods gathered in a green state, and so tender 

 as to snap easily in the fingers, are the parts employed in 

 cooking. If old, they are worthless. They are very 

 wholesome, considerably nutritious, very mucilaginous, and 



